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How to Approve or Unapprove Product Reviews in WooCommerce

By Freedom251 Team · · 8 min read

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In WordPress, go to Products > Reviews. Hover over a review waiting for moderation and click Approve to publish it. To reverse that decision, hover over an approved review and click Unapprove; WooCommerce sends it back to moderation rather than deleting it. You can select several reviews and run the equivalent command from Bulk actions.

The same screen also lets you reply, edit, mark a review as spam, or move it to the trash. Store-wide review and moderation behavior is configured under WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Reviews, while an individual product’s ability to accept reviews is controlled in that product’s Product data > Advanced panel.

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Approve a WooCommerce product review

Use the core WooCommerce moderation list for normal customer reviews. The labels below are the current labels documented by WooCommerce.

  1. Sign in to WordPress. Use an account with permission to manage WooCommerce products and reviews.
  2. Open the review list. In the administration sidebar, select Products > Reviews. WooCommerce identifies this page as the place to view, manage, and moderate product reviews. WooCommerce product-review documentation
  3. Find the review. Scroll through the list or use the available filters for review type, rating, or product. Filtering is useful when a store has a large backlog or when you are checking every review for one item.
  4. Approve it. Hover over a review whose status is awaiting moderation, then select Approve. WooCommerce changes the review to approved, allowing it to appear as a published product review according to your store’s display behavior.
  5. Check the result. The review should no longer be in the moderation queue. If it is not visible on the product page, check the product’s review setting, catalog visibility, and any caching or theme-specific display behavior separately from the moderation status.

Approval is a status change, not an edit. The review’s text, rating, author information, and product association remain as submitted unless you choose an editing action.

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Unapprove an approved review

Unapproving is the way to withdraw a review from the approved state while preserving it for moderation. It is useful when a review was approved accidentally, needs fact-checking, or was reported after publication.

  1. Go to Products > Reviews.
  2. Locate the approved review. Filter by product or rating if that is faster than scanning the complete list.
  3. Hover over the review and select Unapprove.
  4. Confirm that WooCommerce has returned it to moderation. It is no longer treated as an approved review, but it remains available for a later decision.

Unapprove is different from Trash and Spam. Use those actions only when you intend to classify or remove the contribution rather than hold it for a normal approval decision.

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Approve or unapprove several reviews at once

For a queue of reviews with the same outcome, bulk moderation avoids repeating the hover action.

  1. Open Products > Reviews and filter the list first if you need to limit the operation to a particular product, rating, or review type.
  2. Select the checkboxes for the reviews you want to change.
  3. Open the Bulk actions menu.
  4. Choose the corresponding command to approve or unapprove the selected reviews.
  5. Apply the action and review the resulting list to make sure the intended records changed.

Bulk actions are most appropriate when the selected reviews have already passed the same internal check. If one item needs a different decision, leave it out and process it individually.

What else you can do from the review list

Moderation is not limited to a binary approve/unapprove decision. WooCommerce’s review list provides these additional actions:

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  • Reply: respond to the customer from the review-management workflow.
  • Quick Edit: make a limited edit without opening the full editor.
  • Edit: open the review for a fuller change.
  • Spam: classify a review as spam.
  • Trash: move a review out of the active list.

Choose Unapprove when the content may still be legitimate but should not currently be public. Choose Edit when a correction is authorized and needed. Choose Spam or Trash only when that classification reflects your moderation policy.

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Configure WooCommerce review moderation settings

Approval decisions are affected by the store’s review settings. Open WooCommerce > Settings > Products, scroll to the Reviews section, and check the controls that match your policy. WooCommerce lists these core options:

  • Enable product reviews: controls whether product reviews are enabled in the store.
  • Show a “verified owner” label: identifies reviews from verified purchasers with that label.
  • Limit reviews to verified owners: restricts who can submit a review.
  • Enable star ratings: allows ratings to accompany reviews.
  • Require a star rating: makes a rating mandatory when a customer submits a review.

These are store-level controls. They determine how review submission works generally; they do not replace the moderation action on an individual review. The documented settings are listed in WooCommerce’s Products Settings.

Why a customer sees “pending approval”

WooCommerce’s review-request flow uses the store’s normal moderation settings. When manual approval is required, the customer is told that the submitted review is pending approval. That message means the review has entered moderation; it does not mean the submission failed.

To process it, an administrator or other authorized moderator must open Products > Reviews, inspect the review, and select Approve. If your policy does not require manual approval, check the review settings and any extension-specific rules that may be imposing an additional moderation step.

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Turn reviews on or off for one product

Global review settings do not force every product to accept reviews. To change review availability for a single item:

  1. Open the product in the WordPress product editor.
  2. In the Product data panel, open the Advanced tab.
  3. Use Enable Reviews to turn customer reviews on or off for that product.
  4. Save or update the product.

This product-level control governs whether customers can review that item. It is separate from whether an already-submitted review is approved, unapproved, edited, marked as spam, or trashed. WooCommerce documents this setting in its Product Editor settings.

Core WooCommerce versus Product Reviews Pro

The core workflow is sufficient when you need to moderate standard product reviews one at a time or in batches. WooCommerce also documents a Product Reviews Pro extension for stores that need broader contribution and moderation controls. Its configuration and list labels differ from the core screen, so do not assume that a setting found in the extension will appear in the core product-review page.

Capability Core WooCommerce Product Reviews Pro
Primary moderation list Products > Reviews WooCommerce > Reviews, according to the extension documentation
Standard product reviews Approve, unapprove, edit, reply, spam, and trash actions are available Supports the corresponding moderation workflow
Manual-approval control Uses the store’s normal review settings Provides a “Contributions must be manually approved” setting
Contribution types Product reviews Reviews plus other contribution types such as questions, photos, and videos
Filtering and moderation scope Filters for review type, rating, or product Extension-level tools for filtering, flagging, editing, replying, and moderating its supported contributions
Automation interface Manual administration workflow Still depends on the extension’s documented controls; API automation is a separate option

Use the extension only if its additional contribution types or more granular moderation controls solve a requirement you cannot meet with the core list. Review the current Product Reviews Pro documentation for its exact settings and supported contribution types before enabling it.

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Automate moderation with the WooCommerce REST API

Developers building a custom moderation dashboard or an automated queue can use WooCommerce’s Product Reviews REST API. The API represents review status with these values:

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Status Meaning in a moderation workflow
approved The review is approved.
hold The review is held for moderation.
spam The review is classified as spam.
unspam A spam classification is reversed.
trash The review is moved to the trash state.
untrash A trashed review is restored from that state.

The API supports creating, viewing, updating, deleting, and batch-managing product reviews. A custom tool can therefore present its own approval queue or apply a controlled status change without requiring a moderator to use the standard WordPress screen. Authentication, permissions, request validation, and error handling remain the responsibility of the implementation.

Use the official Product reviews REST API documentation for endpoint details and request formats. The API status model is broader than simply “published” or “not published,” so map each status deliberately in your own interface.

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Troubleshoot a review that remains pending

You are looking in the wrong screen

The documented core moderation list is Products > Reviews. Do not rely on the product editor alone to find pending reviews. The product editor’s Product data > Advanced > Enable Reviews control turns review availability on or off for that product; it is not the core moderation queue.

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Manual approval is enabled

Open WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Reviews and review the store’s moderation behavior. If manual approval is required, pending status is expected until someone selects Approve.

The product no longer accepts reviews

Check the product’s Product data > Advanced panel. If Enable Reviews is off, customers cannot submit new reviews for that item. Existing moderation records should still be handled from the review-management list.

An extension is applying its own workflow

If Product Reviews Pro or another review-related extension is active, check its contribution and manual-approval settings. Product Reviews Pro documents a separate WooCommerce > Reviews moderation list and supports contribution types beyond standard reviews.

The review is not visible after approval

First confirm that the review’s status changed in the moderation list. Then check whether reviews are enabled globally and for the individual product. If both settings are correct, investigate the site’s theme, caching, or display configuration; approval alone does not guarantee that every storefront layout will render the review immediately.

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A practical moderation workflow

  1. Set policy first. Decide whether every submission requires manual approval, whether only verified owners may review, and whether ratings are optional or required.
  2. Review the queue. Use the product, rating, and review-type filters to narrow the work to a manageable set.
  3. Make the least destructive decision. Approve legitimate content, unapprove content that needs more review, edit authorized corrections, and use spam or trash only for those classifications.
  4. Use bulk actions carefully. Select only reviews that have the same decision; process exceptions individually.
  5. Check product availability separately. When customers cannot submit reviews, inspect the global setting and the individual product’s Enable Reviews control rather than changing an existing review’s status.
  6. Escalate automation needs. If moderators need custom queues, batch processing outside WordPress, or programmatic status changes, design against the documented REST API statuses and operations.

This separation between submission settings, product-level availability, moderation status, and storefront display makes it easier to identify the actual cause of a pending or missing review.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does unapproving a WooCommerce review delete it?

No. Unapprove returns an approved review to moderation. Use Trash or Spam when you intend a different classification.

Where do I require reviews to include a star rating?

Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Products, open the Reviews section, and enable Require a star rating.

Can I disable reviews for only one product?

Yes. Edit the product, open Product data > Advanced, and use Enable Reviews for that item.

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Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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